216 Mr. Brown's Account of a new Genus of Plants, 



respecting the limb of the column under which the antherae are 

 inserted ; namely, whether it is to be viewed as an imperfectly 

 developed stigma, or as made up of processes of the united fila- 

 ments. In support of the former supposition the nearly similar 

 relation of the sexual organs in certain Asarince may be adduced ; 

 and in favour of the latter, not only their disposition and form in 

 other plants of the same natural family, but also the vascular struc- 

 ture of the column itself; the limb deriving its vessels from branches 

 of the same fasciculi that supply the antherae (plate 20. /. 1.). If 

 this latter view, however, of the origin of the limb were admitted, 

 it might be considered not altogether improbable, that even the 

 corniculate processes of the disk of the column, each of which has 

 a central vascular cord, are of the same nature. For if, on the 

 other hand, these processes are to be regarded as imperfect styles 

 or stigmata, their number and disposition would indicate a struc- 

 ture of ovarium to be found only in families to which it is not 

 probable at least that Rafflesia can be nearly related, as Anno- 

 nacete and the singular genus Eupo?natia*, which I have placed 

 near that natural order. 



Another point to be inquired into connected with the same 

 subject is, in what manner the impregnation of the female flower 

 is likely to be effected by antherae so completely concealed as 

 those of Raffle si a seem to be in all states of the flower ; for it does 

 not appear either that they can ever become exposed by a change 

 in the direction of the limb under which they are inserted, or even 

 that this part of the column in any stage projects beyond the tube 

 of the perianthium. 



It is probable, therefore, that the assistance of insects is abso- 

 lutely necessary ; and it is not unlikely, both as connected with 

 that mode of impregnation and from the structure of the anthera 

 .itself, that in Rafflesia the same economy obtains as in the sta- 



* Flinders '< Voyage, ii. p. 597. tub. <2. 



mina 



